Indian cinema 1975 to 2005: A quick flashback

From masala mixes to New Wave flavour to crossover kitsch, the Indian moviegoer has seen it all. The multiplicity of subjects and genres is what makes Indian cinema special. Here's a quick flashback, tees saal bad.

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Aasheesh Sharma

December 26, 2005

ISSUE DATE: December 26, 2005

UPDATED: April 30, 2012 13:53 IST

From masala mixes to New Wave flavour to crossover kitsch, the Indian movie goer has seen it all. The multiplicity of subjects and genres is what makes Indian cinema special. Here's a quick flashback, tees saal bad.

Aandhi or kissa Indira ka This was the film in which Suchitra Sen sprouted a white streak of hair and looked suspiciously like Indira Gandhi and Sanjeev Kumar pasted a long-suffering expression on his face in approximation of Feroz Gandhi. The government banned the film during the Emergency. But Sen's brilliant performance and R.D. Burman's music score made the film memorable. Songs such as Tere bina zindagi se, Is mod se jaate hain and Tum aa gaye ho refuse to fade away. 1975

Amitabh Bachchan in Dewaar

DeewarThe film that launched a thousand formulae flicks-and the immortal line, mere pas ma hai-is best remembered for the conflict between good and bad embodied by a police officer and a don played by Shashi Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan respectively. The film's template with a Salim-Javed script would be done to death by Bollywood, but the magical screenplay was tough to replicate. 1975

Jana Aranya film by Satyajit Ray

Jana AranyaThe final film in Satyajit Ray's Kolkata trilogy, after Pratidwandi (1970) and Seemabaddha (1971), explored the seamier side of Kolkata's dying colonial corporate world. The protagonist, unfairly assessed in his graduate examination, becomes a corporate "middleman". 1975

Dharmendra and Amjad Khan in Sholay

SholayKitne aadmi the?Bahut. Amjad Khan (making a memorable debut), Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar and the non-stop chattering Basanti. Ramesh Sippy's curry western continues to hold another generation in thrall. However hard Ram Gopal Varma tries, he may not be able to etch a character to take on Salim-Javed's Gabbar. 1975

Manthan Five lakh dairy farmers put in Rs 2 each to make the film. Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil appeared together for the first time. Girish Karnad and Naseeruddin Shah completed the milky way of New Wave stars. 1976

BhumikaThe bhumika (role) Smita Patil played, based on the autobiography of Marathi/Hindi actor Hansa Wadkar, established her as a performer who could play complex, layered characters and hold her own against actors of the calibre of Amol Palekar, Anant Nag, Naseeruddin Shah and Amrish Puri. It also made her death in 1986 a huge setback for Bollywood women in search of progressive roles. 1976

Mithun Chakraborty makes debut with film Mrigaya

Mrigaya Mithun Chakraborty's brilliant debut before he let his pelvis do the acting. He played a tribal hunter who takes the villain's head to a British colonial administrator in the climax. Set in 1930s Orissa, Mrinal Sen's comment on administrative tyranny was one of dissent against the Emergency. 1976

Kodiyettam Adoor Gopalakrishnan's take on human fallacies. The coming of age of the protagonist played by Gopi coincided with changes in Kerala society. A milestone in Malayalam cinema. 1977

Arvind Desai Ki Ajeeb Dastan The second of the films made by the Yukt Co-op, a group of FTII filmmakers, it had eclectic influences from Michelangelo Antonioni to Ben Barka to Octavio Getino. Dilip Dhawan excelled as a businessman's son caught between the contradictions in his life and ideology. 1977

Zeenat Aman in Satyam Shivam Sundaram

Satyam Shivam Sundaram Truth, absolution and beauty: Raj Kapoor style. Zeenat Aman, as a wife vying to win the love of an engineer husband more interested in outer beauty than inner goodness, had the role of a lifetime. Many in the audience were facing the same dilemma: how to take their eyes off the statuesque Zeenie in various stages of semi clad sublimity. 1978

A still from the film Pasi

Pasi Durai's realistic portrayal of low life in Madras' shanty townships won the Best Tamil film of the Year Award. Actor Shobha, who played a rag picker, won the National Award for Best Actress. Shot on location, it used concealed cameras for some of the street shots. 1979

Amar Akbar Anthony You see the coefficient of the linear is juxtaposition by the haemoglobin of the atmospheric pressure in the country. There was method to Manmohan Desai's masala madness. Some zany characters and a multi-star cast had the audience asking for more. 1977

Shankarabharnam film by K. Vishwanath

Shankarabharnam K. Vishwanath's musical hit is a landmark of sorts in Telugu cinema. The portrayal of a relationship between a classical Carnatic music teacher and a prostitute was ahead of its times. It spawned an entire genre of films like Thyagayya and Singeetham. 1979

A still from movie Arth

Arth A breakthrough film. Not just because director Mahesh Bhatt said it was autobiographical. But because Bhatt handled the theme of extra marital affairs with honesty not seen before in Bollywood. What's more, the woman walked out. Magical moment: When Jagjit Singh sang Kaifi Azmi's Tum itna jo... 1982

Bhavni Bhavai The narration in Ketan Mehta's debut film is carried out by a group of Harijans pausing for a night while migrating to a city. Drawing on Gujarat's Bhavai folk theatre, Mehta got great support from Naseeruddin Shah, Smita Patil, Mohan Gokhale and Om Puri. Err, is he the same person who directed The Rising? 1980

Om Puri won a National Award for film Ardh Satya

Ardh Satya Govind Nihalani's exploration of the urban underside. Om Puri won a National Award for the Best Actor and the hard hitting cop drama won the Best Hindi Film Award. For the first time, the cop was less than a hero. 1983

36 Chowringhee LaneIt won Aparna Sen the National Award for Best Direction and a Grand Prix at the Manila International Film Fest. Jennifer Kendall as the Shakespeare-teaching Anglo-Indian teacher, a sensitivity reminiscent of Merchant-Ivory productions and art direction by Bansi Chandragupta were the highlights. Shakespeare's Sir Toby, Violet Stoneham's cat, became immortal. 1981

Jaane Bhi Do YaaronThoda khao thoda pheko. Impeccable timing, great gags and a bunch of comics who knew their stuff had the audience in the splits. The dialogues by Ranjit Kapoor and Satish Kaushik were brilliant. 1983

Nayakan Time called it a terrific Godfather-style gangster movie and put it in its all-time best movies list. And Kamal Hassan considers it a high point in his very high-profile oeuvre. 1987

Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit in film Parinda

ParindaThe taut film has low angle tracking shots, tight close-ups and excellent use of the tele-lens. The editing keeps the tempo going.Worth watching for the method behind the menace of Mumbai's ganglords and Nana Patekar's histrionics. 1989

Mukha MukhamAdoor Gopalakrishnan recreates the melodrama in Kerala's communist politics. An auteur's take on stereotypes and radical populism. 1984

Still from film Monsoon Wedding

Monsoon Wedding If Sooraj Barjatya's Hum Aapke Hain Koun! was a garish costume drama, this was reality TV. Mira Nair's take on pre wedding chaos, it was a delightful blend of humour and humanity. 2001

Tamas Strong and disturbing. Bhisham Sahni began writing the novel after witnessing the Partition riots in Rawalpindi. Govind Nihalani's controversial TV series based on the novel caused a communal conflagration in Mumbai and Hyderabad 40 years later. 1987

RojaKashmiri terrorists kidnap an Indian Oil official. Real life inspires reel pulp patriotism. Roja found celebrity endorsement in T.N. Seshan. A hit both in the Tamil and Hindi versions, it also introduced A.R. Rahman and Mani Ratnam to Hindi speaking audiences. 1992

Bandit Queen A strong performance by Seema Biswas, great cinematography and the real, almost stark, treatment of characters by Shekhar Kapur made the dacoit story worth watching. The caste tension was palpable. Arundhati Roy helped its cause by raging against the exploitation of Phoolan Devi. 1994

Aamir Khan in Lagaan

Dilwale Dulhaniya Le JayengeAs they cavorted to Jatin Lalit's tunes in Chopraesque locales, NRIs Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol exuded 90s cool. The film was path-finding in the way it looked, sang and danced. The SRK-Kajol chemistry, the mushy dialogue and the wedding songs were made to box-office order. 1995

LagaanOnce upon a time in India, a musical about villagers winning a cricket match against the British won an Oscar nomination. The film grossed $2 million (Rs 9 crore) in North America and Great Britain. Square cut: The only award Lagaan won abroad was the audience choice award at a comparatively low-profile film festival in Locarno. 2001

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